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Market Street Getting Repaved — Starting This Friday!

By San Francisco Bicycle Coalition on June 6, 2013

Big news for our city’s busiest bicycle corridor: The full outside lanes and bikeways of Market Street will be repaved starting this week, resulting in a safer, smoother commute for the huge and growing number of people biking on this core bike route.

The Department of Public Works will begin repaving the stretch of Van Ness to 6th Street on Friday night. The rest of Market will be repaved later in June and early July. So this summer, you’ll have a smoother, safer ride all the way from Van Ness Avenue to the Embarcadero.

We’ve heard from our members that the poor pavement quality on Market Street is of utmost concern for them, and often a deterrent to riding their bikes to work. That’s why the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has made improving Market Street one of our primary campaigns.

Your SF Bicycle Coalition has been pushing for near-term improvements to Market Street, while still advocating for a much bigger and truly Better Market Street that includes safe, separated bikeways the full length. We’re proud that our relentless calls for Market Street improvements resulted in patch pavements of 35 sections last year, and a full, fresh repaving starting this week!

In order to do the full repaving of these lanes, the City will have to remove the existing bikeway, including the safe hit posts. New paint and posts will go in shortly, and we’ll continue to communicate with the City and our members about exact dates of when the bikeway will be put back in.

While we’re thrilled that the outside lanes and bikeways will be given fresh, smooth pavement, we’re also continuing our calls for bigger changes to Market Street. We know that smooth pavement is a great start, but our city’s main corridor deserves separated bikeways, safer pedestrian improvements and improved transit.

Please know that huge wins like this are only made possible by the support of San Francisco Bicycle Coalition members. You can’t write grants or ask foundations for help on this kind of project; it’s only possible by tenacious, on-the-ground advocacy. If you’re not yet a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, please join today, and ensure that smooth pavement is just the beginning!